Filed under: Your Home, Projects, Design, etc, House Tours, Architecture
The new exterior of the home. Photo: Randy O'Rourke
Have you ever seen a house where the attached garage was turned into a family room or extra bedroom that basically still looked like a garage with drywall? Converting a garage into livable space is quite a feat, but to do it in a tasteful way so it looks like it was always there is even more of a challenge.
But Frank Shirley of Frank Shirley Architects did exactly that. In 2009, he and a team converted a two-car attached garage on a lovely ocean-side home in Massachusetts into a beautiful family room.
The cozy 84-year-old home overlooks the Atlantic Ocean, but like many older homes, it lacked the space needed for today's lifestyle. The homeowners turned to Frank to help them solve their space dilemma.
While some people would never give up their garage, this family needed more bedrooms and a family room. Plus, the large driveway leading up to the old garage, often full of cars, blocked the home's entryway. Frank had an idea: Don't give up the garage, move the garage to the other side of the home. Then you'd improve the home's curb appeal -- and the family wouldn't lose the much loved storage space.
A garage-turned-family room. Photo: Randy O'Rourke
The result is a spectacular conversion and addition that looks like it was part of the home's original cottage-style. It added about 2,500 square feet to the home, including a family room where the old garage was once located, as well as a new 2-car garage, a mudroom, three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a laundry room.
The family room is divided into two areas: the game area (pictured above), which houses a pool table and a window seat, where you can wait your turn, as well as rich wood built-in cabinetry for storing board games and other recreational items. On the other side of the room is where the family can relax and watch movies or television on the flat screen TV that sits inside a custom-built wall-to-wall entertainment center.
Frank's team wanted to pay respect to the original home, so he carefully selected woods to fit the character and craftsmanship of the house. To replace the old garage doors, he selected leaded glass doors that open onto an intimate front garden area, perfect for relaxing on a cool summer evening.
For before pictures of the garage, see below. Yes, your cluttered garage could look this good.
Before: The front of the house before the remodel. Photo: Frank Shirley Architects
Before: The 2-car garage was a catch-all storage spot. Photo: Frank Shirley Architects
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